1. Field of the Invention
This application is related to a voice responsive telephone assistant device which has an network upgrade capability which offers features to the device based on the type and frequency of use of the voice responsive telephone assistant device.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Today there are many different commercially available devices that enable people to communicate with each other electronically. In addition to the ubiquitous telephone that has been around for decades, there now are cordless phones for the home, mobile phones for the car, handheld wireless phones which fit into a person's jacket pocket, pagers, local and wide area computer networks, and facsimile machines, to name a few. Undoubtedly, the number and type of devices and their sophistication will continue to increase over time. Indeed, it is likely that a day will soon arrive when it will be possible for everybody to conveniently and inexpensively be within arms reach of some communication device that enables them to communicate with other people.
The proliferation of different types of communication devices and the increasing diversity of communications media present new challenges. How will communications among the different devices and over the different communications media be coordinated and managed so that people have truly effective and useful access to each other? One challenge is associated with communicating information between and across different communications media. Another challenge is related to handling the inevitable increase in the number of calls so as to maintain accessibility of users. For example, as more people come to rely on their wireless phones to transact business while on the road or away from their off ices, their phones are likely to be busy a larger percentage of the time. As a consequence, although a wireless phone can go anywhere with its owner, to the people tying to reach that owner when the phone is in use, the owner will still seem to be as inaccessible as when he did not carry a wireless phone. In addition, the more the owner of such a device uses it, the more likely it will be that he will not know that somebody else was trying to reach him and thus he may miss important calls.
Thus, an obvious advantage of many of the new commercially available communications devices is that they offer the possibility of greater mobility to the user. Unfortunately, however, it is not always having to be near the office telephone that ties a business person to the office. The office provides other services that are also important and may not be so mobile. Thus, to fully realize the greater mobility that is offered by the new communications devices and media, these new technologies must be provided in a way that takes into account the business person's dependance on other services besides communications.
In addition to the many various technologies and options which will be available to the user, there will also be costs involved for each of these technologies. A user may not want to pay for all of the technology available to him. At the same time, the vendor of the technology will try to and, in fact will, build into his equipment as many functions and needed technologies as possible. As a result there is a constant tension between the vendor or salesman trying to sell as many services and options as possible and the user who is limited, substantially, in what he may either want, or think he wants, and can afford.
Further, this tension between vendor and user is not limited to electronic communications systems. The complexities of today's systems are encountered in many other fields, from the purchase of an office's computers and the software to run them, to the home television and video tape recorder. The tension also exists in those applications, which are server based, in which hardwired or modem connected desktop computers are serviced by a central server. The central server can provide a number of different functionalities to the user computers (often designated network computers when connected, for example, over a cable connection). Other technologies will be apparent to those working in other fields.